This was a beautifully written book dealing with death and grief. I feel that people, especially Americans, are way too squeamish and scared of death. It is one of the most natural things in the universe; everyone dies. Yet if people talk about it too much, or are interested in death related hobbies such as taxidermy, others deem them weird, death obsessive, or even mentally ill, as was the case in this book. Lottie’s aunt thought she was being too weird, that she had issues, that she wasn’t being lady like. But Lottie was dealing with grief and death in her own way. She loved the bones and the animals she collected. She realized that death can still be beautiful and understood, and she knew that this was helping her to cope. She didn’t think was she was doing was weird or wrong, and it wasn’t. It brought her closer to those she had lost, and helped her deal with their deaths. If more people realized that talking about death doesn’t make you automatically depressed, that it doesn’t make you weird, then maybe we can move past our fear of it.

The first few pages of The Art of Taxidermy confused me as I didn’t know it was a verse novel. What I thought was just an introductory poem, was really the start of the actual novel. There were so few words that I found it difficult to create an image for myself. I’m a very visual person when reading, and I need to be able to make the story into a sort of personal movie in my head to be able to enjoy it. That is very difficult to do with this type of novel, though the poetry was beautifully written.

I wish this had been an actual novel, because the story itself was very captivating as well as sad. It’s about Lottie, a young girl who is descendant from Germans who fled the war, but who now lives in Australia and is obsessed with death. When you continue reading, you realise that she has had to experience so much death in her young life already that it is bound to have a certain influence on her. She turns to taxidermy as a way to prove to herself that death is not the end. Though her aunt finds this repulsive, her father sees the beauty in it, and encourages her to study the science. 

Though the poems were quite short, they gave away plenty of information and in the end they made up one complete story. There were many little details tucked away in the lines that created beautiful images. I just wish there was more to read.

An utterly engaging and intriguing narrative of poems about a child--later a young woman--and her ability to see beauty in death, despite the social and familial pressures not to do so. The writing is evocative and visual--and visceral--and the reading experience that it provides is unique and lasting.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. 

"It is only death.
It is not the end!
The dead are gone--
not forgotten.
We all die.
It's a part of life."


God this was amazing. This is exactly the type of atmosphere that I look for in creepy poetry collections or novels. I especially enjoyed the build-up towards the narrator's ultimate goal of becoming a taxidermist. The combination of grief and abandonment made this poetry collection incredibly moving. 

Lottie is a girl who, in hindsight, has lost both her mother and her sister. To cope with their loss, she goes out and finds dead animals to keep in her room to watch as they turn to dust. Throughout the novel, we meet other characters such as her father, aunt Hilda and her grandmother, who all, except her father really, are opposed to Lottie's obsession with dead animals and taxidermy. Then there's also a boy in her school, Jeffrey, who turns out to be one of the few who isn't repelled by her interests. 

As I said, the mix of life and death, of beauty and the macabre, turned out to be a really good match for me. However, do be aware that the author has used very vivid macabre imagery when describing the dead animals, so I'd say you need to be aware of this trigger warning while reading.

The Art of Taxidermy is a YA verse novel that follows Lottie and her fascination with death, especially dead animals, as a means to cope with the losses in her life. 

I enjoyed the style and lyrical verses in the novel. It was a short and quick read but at times felt repetitive. I liked how small images were included in various pages. The images added a beauty and visual that was relevant to the different verses. I loved how the novel explored themes of death, grief, and breaking gender stereotypes.

As this book was written in prose, it took me a little while to adjust. Once I got the hang of it, the book flew by! I finished it in two days, and I ended up LOVING the writing style.

The plot of The Art of Taxidermy is very unique! A young girl develops an interest in the dead and how to recreate them through taxidermy. Many other characters take this hobby differently and our young narrator struggles to enjoy her craft and fit in with her family.

The story seems simple but throughout the novel, little twists are dropped. It was clever, beautiful, and quick! I am definitely interested to see what Sharon Kernot writes next!

Went into this not really knowing anything about it and I have to say it was unlike anything I’ve ever read. It was a whole take on grief and lotties obsession with taxidermy being about wanting to preserve and show the beauty in death. 

Books written in verse are some of my favourites, and although normally books like this would have me sobbing, something about this just didn’t connect with me. However would still recommend it as was a quick and interesting read!

Enjoyed this book. Kept me interested all the way through. Would recommend to a fellow reader.  Love the cover.

Judging a book by its cover. Something we are always told not to do, but I did. I picked this book because of how bright and flowery the cover looked. However, that was a mistake. Don’t get me wrong, I loved this book, but like the main character, it has a dark side. 
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Enamored with death, “Lottie” collects dead specimens, much to the disappointment of her aunt. Now she’s not alone in this hobby, with a childhood friend and a new boy in her class, they make quite the trio in expanding her collection.

The Art of Taxidermy is a beautiful, quick and poetical read. You follow the journey of the grief main character Lottie goes through after her mother died. Lottie starts getting interested in dead animals and bringing them back to life in the form of taxidermy. 

The journey of Lottie’s grief is very interesting. It’s unique and unusual and offers a different perspective. She’s misunderstood by the other characters, but as a reader, her actions and thoughts make sense. Het father and aunt, the people with whom she lives, both react entirely different to Lottie’s peculiar behavior. Both of them are grieving too and want what’s best for Lottie. They only act it out in different ways, which makes them feel human. I do have to say that I was getting annoyed by how many times Lottie’s aunt says: “This is wrong, Wolfgang!”. 

Lottie is not a character I could relate well with, but it was easy to live along with her and her emotions. It also took me some time to figure out what the age of Lottie was and when the book took place. This made it more difficult to get a whole picture. These things are mentioned later in the book though. 

One thing I thought worked out really well in this book was that there are some mysteries that aren’t solved until halfway through. In the beginning, a character named Annie is always by Lottie´s side. Other characters don´t seem to notice Annie. It makes you wonder if Annie is an imaginary friend or a ghost. And if she´s a ghost, how did she die? 

Another aspect I really liked was the contrast. Sharon Kernot uses a lot of contrast in her story, mostly in small details like the color of hair or the material of a photo frame. It helps to create just the right ambiance and makes the book feel emotionally right. I’m also a fan of the extreme details. There are quite some dead animals in this book and their decay is described in specific ways. It sets the right tone, but also a warning here that this book isn’t for you if dead animals creep you out! 

All by all, I really enjoyed this book. It’s beautifully written and I can recommend it if you aren’t squeamish and you’re looking for a quick, emotional read.

A unique, touching verse novel that explores a child's way of coping with death. 

Charlotte is a young girl living in Australia, and her mother passed away long ago. The girl's life is lonely and simple, and she begins filling her time with collecting dead creatures she stumbles across in the Australian countryside—a dead crow, for instance. She cares for them, and later on develops an interest in taxidermy as means to preserve them—her own way of resurrecting the creatures, bringing lost ones back to life. Her macabre hobby doesn't sit right with her worried Aunt Hilda, who wants her to be a "normal" child. 

I had no idea what a verse novel was when I requested this book, so for fellow uncultured peasants, allow me to explain that it means narrative poetry. I am not someone usually entertained by poetry as a medium, but this book was a comfortable read that touched upon subjects that interest me: death, coping with grief, the internment camps during WW2 and the treatment of Aboriginals in Australia. The prose flows just right, and there were some lovely passages that lingered with me.

There are a few passages that may be too gory for certain readers, so beware if you're the squeamish sort. But it's nothing extreme, in my opinion, and adds to the narrative rather than detracts.

This is a verse novel in which a young woman deals with her mother's death through taxidermy. Charlotte finds solace in revitalizing animals. She feels as if she is giving them purpose as well as bringing them back to life. 

This book is beautiful and like none other I have ever read. Exquisitely written and worth the read. Cannot wait for it to be re-published!

Not my usual style of fiction. I received this book not realising it was written in verse. While the poetry was beautiful, at times I felt like it detracted focus from the story. Recommending.

Sharon Kernot's [book:The Art of Taxidermy|38581969] was an enjoyable and complex young-adult read on grief, family, loss, and war—and on how art and creation can help us heal. Through the act (or, as the title aptly names: art) of taxidermy, Kernot navigates her narrator Lottie's attempts to make sense of her loss. Taxidermy becomes a surprising and meaningful metaphor, and one that also addresses issues of gender expectations. Through lyrical and precise verse, the author conveys much in little space, making the book as a whole a quick, easy read. The illustrations throughout are a nice touch, too.

There were times that details about the plot—for instance, the historic Australian setting and family dynamics—were convoluted. Furthermore, while the prose was full of imagery, the tone shifted a few times in its maturity; it seemed improbable that some of the metaphors were coming from an 11-12 year old narrator: "Like a cubist rendition of herself, all squares, rectangles, triangles. There is never a smile." (This is a wonderful line, however.)

Overall, this verse novel is a great read with important themes, conveyed creatively through taxidermy. Extremely poetic. I wish some of the themes over war and race were more deeply explored, but the existing traces might be enough for some young adult readers. Looking forward to what Sharon Kernot writes next!

**Disclaimer: I received an early copy of The Art of Taxidermy from NetGalley and Text Publishing for review purposes.  Thank you to them for this opportunity.

The Art of Taxidermy by Sharon Kernot is a young adult novel in verse.  It falls into the genre of historical fiction as it takes place in Australia is a time period that follows World War II.  This book comes out on August 23rd, 2019.  I gave it 4 stars on GoodReads.
Here is the summary from GoodReads:
Lottie collects dead creatures and lovingly cares for them, hoping to preserve them, to save them from disintegration. Her father understands—Lottie has a scientific mind, he thinks. Her aunt wants it to stop, and she goes to cruel lengths to make sure it does. 
And her mother? Lottie’s mother died long ago. And Lottie is searching for a way to be close to her.
The Art of Taxidermy is a heartbreaking verse novel exploring love and death, grief and beauty, and the ways we try to make sense of it all.

I am always so impressed with novels in verse.  It amazes me the way that an author can convey so much emotion and details about what happens based on so many less words than the typical book contains.  However, sometimes details can be lost and things like flashbacks can be confusing.  I had some moments like that with The Art of Taxidermy.  Certain things that I thought had had happened, hadn't and there was the occasional flashback that did confuse me.  However, Kernot's use of language was absolutely gorgeous.  She had some really interesting figures of speech and I really liked the way that she played with words.  

The story itself was interesting.  It is primarily about death and grief and Lottie, the protagonist/narrator, dealing with these things and ultimately her fascination with death and decay.  It was really cool to me that Kernot was able to make a story about death so beautiful.  I really enjoyed watching Lottie grow and learn about herself and her interests, and it was really interesting to watch her learn about her family.  

The story was unique for me, because it occupied a perspective that I don't often read about or hear about.  The story, as mentioned previously, takes place in Australia after World War II.  Lottie's family is German, and they immigrated to Australia prior to the war because they didn't like how things were going in Germany.  The story discusses how Lottie's father and Opa were put into an internment camp called Loveday during the war, simply because they were German.  The book doesn't go in depth with this, but it's interesting to read about the lingering damage it left the family.  Additionally, Lottie is treated poorly at school because of her German heritage.  Personally, I have German heritage.  My Oma and Opa immigrated to Canada after the war, so it's a bit of a different experience and I was never bullied for having German heritage, but I could understand the reactions she had to how she was treated.  It was just a point of personal connection I had with her.

The description and imagery in this book is really good.  There was a lot of rather morbid imagery because, as one may have guessed from the title and summary, Lottie is quite fascinated with death and becomes quite interested in the idea of taxidermy.  At one point she decides to become a taxidermist and tries to learn how to do it on her own.  There is a lot of talk of her finding dead animals and wanting to keep them, so if you're squeamish, this probably isn't the book for you.  However, even just reading about Lottie's fascination is fascinating.  It's not a topic that I particularly relate to so it's really interesting to get a different perspective on it.

Ultimately, the depiction of grief is the real standout from this novel.  Lottie's mother is dead, and so is her opa and other figures in her life.  Lottie has to learn to come to terms with these things, and that's what the novel is about.  However, she's not the only one as the remaining members of her family also need to learn to cope with their losses.  These moments in the novel are particularly poignant.  

So, while this wasn't my favourite novel in verse that I've ever read, it was a lovely, well written story that educated me and it made me feel.  It was a quick read as well, and the pacing was really good.  So when August 23rd comes around, you should consider picking yourself up a copy.  Thank you again to Text Publishing and NetGalley for this opportunity, and thank you to you for reading this.

Blog review coming soon.

This book, written in verse, details Charlotte's experience with grief, loss, and the resurrection of life. 
The Art of Taxidermy absolutely destroyed me. The haunting back story, the intimate look at a young girls handle on the death of her mother, and the disapproval of her Aunt. 
Largely romanticizing life, this book follows Charlotte on a beautifully written journey as she comes to terms with a traumatic loss, through the discovery and practice of taxidermy. 
Would highly recommend.
My rating : 4 stars

Lyrical verse comes together beautifully to tell a young girl’s story of growing up while processing her grief for her mother. Lottie develops a fascination with taxidermy, with a desire to “remake” dead creatures and return them to their former beauty. She is not well understood by her aunt, who pushes her toward more traditionally female endeavors. Her father supports her interests. I read this book in one sitting - I absolutely could not put it down until I had finished Lottie’s story.

Oh man, what an interesting little book. Going in, I didn’t know it was written in verse so it took a little while to adjust to that format of writing. This is a cute, if not strange, story. ⁣
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The story follows Lottie as she explores her newfound love of taxidermy. Personally, I’ve always found taxidermy a bit gross and creepy, but this book actually changed my view. Lottie has a way of describing the art of taxidermy as just that - art. Giving new life to something that has passed. ⁣
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This book is beautiful and weird and heartbreaking at times. It’s a true representation of growing up in a world full of loss, and finding ways to cope with your grief. ⁣
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I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a light story dealing with tough topics. ⁣
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I wasn't aware that this book was written in verse before I started reading it, but I really enjoyed it. I loved the character of Lottie and how passionately she cares about dead things and their preservation and how it affects her family life.

Having the story in verse gave way to hearing both the inner voice of Lottie as well as moving the story forward, which sometimes went in a way that I wasn't expecting. 

Overall this was a fun, relatively quick read that I really enjoyed and would be a good introduction to verse novels.

As someone who studies and has taught creative writing with a specialization in poetry, I was really excited by the idea of this ya verse novel. I had hoped it would accomplish everything Jandy Nelson sought to in The Sky is Everywhere and more. The premise was intriguing and Kernot withheld just enough details in her introductory sections to capture readers' attentions. However, this book fell so so short. I was continually confused by novel was written in verse. It seemed like a throwaway--nothing was added by formatting the story in this way. The hapless use of poetry actually turned me off from reading the book to its completion. It was a disappointing read for me.